590 SCAUP DUCK. 
SCAUP DUCK.—ANAS MARILLA.— Fie. 282. 
Le petit Morillon rayé, Briss. vi. p. 416,26, A.— Arct. Zool. No. 498. - Lath. 
Syn. iii. p. 500. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2668. 
FULIGULA MARILLA, —Steruens.* 
Folge. marilla, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. xii. p. 108. — Bonap. Syn. ys 392.— 
orth. Zool. ii. p.457.— Anas marilla, Linn. i. p. 19.—Scaup Duck, Mont. 
Ornith. Dict. i. and Supp. — Bevw. ii. p. 339. — Canard milouinan, Temm. Man. 
ii, p. 865.— Nyroca marilla, Flem. De. Anim. p. 122.—Common Scaup Po- 
chard, Selby, Must. Br. Ornit. pl. 66. 
Tus Duck is better known among us by the name of the Blue 
Bill. It is an excellent diver, and, according to Willoughby, feeds on 
a certain small kind of shell fish called scaup, whence it has derived 
its name. It is common both to our fresh-water rivers and sea-shores 
in winter. Those that frequent the latter are generally much the fat- 
test, on account of the greater abundance of food along the coast. 
It is sometimes abundant in the Delaware, particularly in those places 
where small snails, its favorite shell fish, abound, feeding also, like 
most of its tribe, by moonlight. They generally leave us in April, 
though T have met with individuals of this species so late as the mid- 
dle of May, among the salt marshes of New Jersey. Their flesh is 
not of the most delicate kind, yet some persons esteem it. That of the 
young birds is generally the tenderest and most palatable. 
The length of the Blue Bill is nineteen inches; extent, twenty-nine 
inches; bill, broad, generally of a light blue, sometimes of a dusky 
lead color; irides, reddish; head, tumid, covered with plumage of a 
dark, glossy green, extending half way down the neck; rest of the 
neck and breast, black, spreading round to the back; back and scap- 
ulars, white, thickly crossed with waving lines of black ; lesser coverts, 
dusky, powdered with veins of whitish; primaries and tertials, brown- 
ish black ; secondaries, white, tipped with black, forming the speculum; 
rump and. tail-coverts, black; tail, short, rounded, and of a dusky 
brown; belly, white, crossed near the vent with waving lines of ash; 
vent, black; legs and feet, dark slate. 
Such is the color of the bird in its perfect state. Young birds vary 
considerably, some having the head black, mixed with gray and pur- 
* Common also to both continents, and in Britain a most abundant Sea Duck. 
Though generally to be found in the poultry markets during winter, it is strong and 
ill-flavored, or what is called fishy, and of little estimation for the table. In the 
Northern Zoology, the American specimens are said to be smaller, but no other 
distinctions could be perceived ; a single northern specimen which I possess, agrees 
nearly with the dimensions given of the smaller kind, and I can see no other im- 
portant difference ; but there are also larger-sized birds, known to the natives b 
the addition of “ Keetchee,” to the name, and I think it protable that two birds 
may be here confused, which future observations will allow us to separate. 
he young of both this bird and the Tufted Pochard na e a white band cir- 
cling the base of the bill, which has caused them to be described as distinct 
species. — Ep. 
